The present disclosure relates to patient support apparatuses, such as hospital beds or stretchers, and particularly to patient support apparatuses having powered transport devices such as motorized wheels or motorized traction drives to propel the patient support apparatus along a floor. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to user interfaces and control systems for such transport devices.
Some patient support apparatuses, such as hospital beds or stretchers, have powered transport systems that propel the patient support apparatus along a floor. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,090,041; 7,083,012; 7,021,407; 7,011,172; 7,007,765; 6,902,019; 6,877,572; 6,772,850; 6,752,224; 6,749,034; 6,725,956; 6,588,523; 6,390,213; 6,330,926; and 5,083,625. It is common for such systems to have controllers that are programmed to sense a plurality of conditions before a motor will be activated to propel the patient support apparatus along a floor. For example, such systems usually sense whether or not casters are braked, whether or not an enable switch or other safety switch is engaged by a user, whether or not a battery has sufficient power to activate the motor, and whether or not an AC power plug of the patient support apparatus is plugged into an electrical outlet. If the caster brakes are set, if the enable switch is not engaged, if the battery power is too low, or if the AC power plug is plugged in, the powered transport systems will typically be disabled from propelling the associated patient support apparatus.
Most of the known prior art transport devices of hospital beds and stretchers are configured to propel the bed only in forward and reverse directions. It has also been proposed to have a powered transport device that will allow the wheel or traction drive to be re-oriented relative to the patient support apparatus to allow for side-to-side or lateral transport in addition to forward and reverse transport. See, for example, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/865,763, filed Oct. 2, 2007, and entitled “USER INTERFACE AND CONTROL SYSTEM FOR POWERED TRANSPORT DEVICE OF A PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUS,” now published as U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0086815 A1, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. In such patient support apparatuses that have power transport systems that can propel forwardly, rearwardly, and side-to-side, it is advantageous to give a caregiver access to power transport system controls from the ends of the patient support apparatus, as well as the sides.